


Strawberry Gold

by phoenixreal, SapphireTou



Category: Bleach, ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Abuse, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Branding, Eventual Romance, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sexual Slavery, Slavery, Slow Burn, Tags May Change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-15 21:46:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12329508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SapphireTou/pseuds/SapphireTou
Summary: In a new world after the Shinigami Foundation uses nanites to "fix" a broken world, Ichigo Kurosaki finds treasures from the past to help build a future. A chance encounter with a strange woman in need of help lands him right in the middle of a salvage ship called the Gold Experience and in the middle of a struggle to save one young woman from her own father.





	1. The Gold Experience and the Strawberry

**Author's Note:**

> Join a Discord Server made just for Writers, Artists, and Fans of JJBA!
> 
> https://discord.gg/jtHxKJ5

* * *

“Why am I awake?” was the first, simple thought that ran through Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s mind as his eyes fluttered open. He found himself staring up at his daughter and assistant Nemu outside the cover of the cryogenic chamber.

“The levels of nanotechnological upheaval have reached homeostasis, father,” Nemu commented as she opened the chamber to let him sit up and rub his eyes.

“Ugh, about time. How long has it been?” he asked.

“Team alpha awoke on the surface approximately twenty-two years ago and have been integrating with the new local populations, but the total time in cryo-freeze for us has been two hundred fifty-two years, two months, and sixteen days,” she responded as she handed him a yukata. Team alpha would have sent the code to awaken them. They had woken up at fifty year intervals to check the status of the world.

Mayuri nodded solemnly as he slipped into the vibrantly colored garment. “And the status of Seireitei?” he asked as he moved to look over the instruments.

“We are still settled at optimal atmospheric altitude to get readings from the entire globe. Nanite levels are down to acceptable levels, and the turmoil they caused has returned to normal. Much of the planet has been overgrown and native populations that were encased in the underground cities have grown into different cultures over the last fifty years. We also seem to have a few mutations caused in those born on the planet, Captain Urahara and his team call the largest of them Arrancar, as they all seem to be marked by a large, black circular mark on their bodies at some place.”

Mayuri brought up the communication link to the surface. Immediately, the screen was filled with the blond haired, eccentric captain of the ground level team, Kisuke Urahara. He was twenty years older, and Mayuri hoped that time had tempered the young man that he’d sent down to the surface to head the team.

“Mayuri! Good to see you up! Seems things have gotten interesting in your long sleep. Over two hundred fifty years means things have changed a lot, but some things have stayed the same. We survived, and so did your favorite rival—Speedwagon Foundation is still around down here,” Urahara informed him, adjusting the white and green bucket hat on his head and smiling.

“Ugh, really. Why couldn’t they just die out?” Mayuri growled and pushed his blue hair out of his eyes. It had gotten longer at some point despite the cryo-freeze. He’d have to investigate that eventually.

“Well, they ran damage control and actually kept panic among the underground populations somewhat down over the last fifty years. Though we do have some problems down here, especially among the seafaring folks we’ve been seeing. Seems like Japan got lucky, and it is actually one of the more habitable areas on the surface world. It looks like Japan, the coastal areas of China, the area of Europe around the Mediterranean Sea, and the southern portion of Africa have habitation zones. The rest…well, there were some mutations,” Urahara said with a smirk.

Mayuri narrowed his eyes. “Yes, these altered humans, the Arrancar as you’ve named them?”

“Ah, not just that. That’s actually what the problem with the uninhabitable zones is. It isn’t lack of resources, there are plenty of those, but animals and plants have mutated under your nanites. They are larger, fiercer, and roaming wildly among most the world. The habitation zones are all near coastlines and are surrounding some of the larger bunkers that the Shinigami Foundation built. Speedwagon Foundation has culled some of the areas, but there are unknown animals and plants in there. Then there’s the Wandenreich,” Urahara said with a deeper sigh. Mayuri snorted and Urahara continued. “Humans with a wish to undo everything we did. They want to reclaim our technological legacy. Deadly people. The other humans we’re aware of that are a problem are out of Italy near that habitation zone. A lot of artifacts washed our direction during the storms we caused, and several large-scale salvage ships have been sent here to find technology to rebuild with.”

“Any technology still on the surface is useless,” Mayuri dismissed with a wave of his hand.

“Not if they have people to put it back together. Don’t forget, innovation didn’t die, just most of the old Earth. Well, we’re alive so that is something,” Urahara sighed and glanced behind him.

“We saved the world, so why do you act like we murdered someone?” Mayuri was growing tired of the act Urahara was putting on.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi of the Shinigami Foundation, over two hundred fifty years ago, had an idea on how to fix their dying planet. He designed nanites that could be released into the atmosphere that would repair the damage global warming and other manmade disasters had caused. Their rival, the Speedwagon Foundation, had opposed the mission, but in the end the United Nations had sided with the Shinigami Foundation and the nanites were released. Luckily, they listened to the Speedwagon Foundation’s warnings and had built underground bunkers in case things went bad. And bad they had gone. Storms raged over the changing planet, and the surface quickly became uninhabitable. Shinigami Foundation, which was based on a technologically advanced city designed to fly, had gone up and above, leaving the alpha team in a secret underground bunker to wake every fifty or so years and check for habitability of the surface. Now, after two hundred seventy fifty years, things had changed much. Everything on the surface was overgrown and in need of rebuilding from the ground up.

“We destroyed the world to fix it.” Urahara sighed and then shook his head. “Either way, Karakura and Morioh are well underway. My team and a large contingent from the bunker have taken up residence in Karakura, and Morioh is mostly Speedwagon’s people.”

Mayuri snorted again. “Speedwagon. At least the old codger is dead by now.”

“But the Foundation is strong, and it took the lead in many of the bunker communities, so you will have to show some respect. Oh, I regret to inform you that we believe the United Nations bunker was destroyed. We can’t contact eastern Europe at all. It seems like there was a massive earthquake in the region the specialized bunker was located. Most of that area is underwater, and there is a new mountain range where England should be.”

“Just as well, the UN was a hassle to deal with,” Mayuri muttered.

“They gave leadership, which now we have to do as well as Speedwagon’s people. Uh there is one other group to be wary of, and you’ll want to send division eleven people with anyone that comes down because of them. They’ve been dubbed the _Gaki_ and we’re not sure what they are yet. We haven’t caught one and they take their dead when there is a clash, but they’re primal and barely what you would call human. Some sort of de-evolution or something might have taken place there.” Urahara paused. “I think that’s all I have for you at the moment, but just make sure you bring plenty of muscle. Swords work best down here, as you get into close combat quickly if you fight. One of the times I’m glad that Yama-Jii always insisted that we learn the old ways…”

“Indeed,” Mayuri said as he downed a cup of coffee Nemu had left him. “Whatever it is, we’ll face it. Captain Zaraki will be happy that there will be fighting at least. I’ll have a team in Karakura by tomorrow.”

“Mayuri, you haven’t even woken them. Give them a day or two to come out of cryo for Kami’s sake,” Urahara grumbled as he tapped off the feed.

Mayuri supposed he should. He turned and typed in the command that was awaken all of Seireitei. He supposed that the Rukongai had grown while they slept too. There had been a lot of people living on the outer edges around the heart of the Seireitei before it was closed up.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Finding “treasures” on the coast had been one of Ichigo Kurosaki’s favorite things to do over the last few years. Having been born into the new world that they now lived in, Ichigo didn’t remember anything else in order to miss it. He was twenty years old this year, having been born almost immediately after his father had exited cryo-stasis and saved his mother from a beast that was trying to kill her. A thankful woman turned into a dutiful wife and mother, and despite their quick, whirlwind romance, they had been happy together. He had two sisters four years younger than he was, and even with his mother dying when he was nine after being attacked by another monstrous creature, his family was everything to him.

Fascinated by the stories his father told of the “old days”, it was no wonder that Ichigo had a fondness for memorabilia of the past. He had heard story after story of what the world had been like before the changes happened. Even as a small child, he had been enamored with the tales and artifacts of the time before they went underground. So, he searched for treasures to take back and show his father since he knew what most the things he found were. Sometimes he ran across things his father didn’t know about, and then he’d ask someone like Urahara. Usually they figured out what it was he’d found.

They lived in Karakura, but the best location for finding treasures on the coastal region was closer to the other coastal city that had been built—Morioh. He had met an interesting couple along that area, a man named Jotaro Kujo and his husband Kakyoin. Together they had a son, named Jouta, which was where Ichigo found out about the “thirds” or males that were capable of child-bearing due to some mutation caused by the nanites. Ichigo knew mostly everything that had occurred, of course, being the child of one of the Shinigami Foundation’s major people. Well, his father was retired now, and the town doctor for Karakura. Ichigo knew that his own physiology was different, though. His father had warned him no matter what, he wasn’t to allow anyone from the Shinigami or Speedwagon Foundations run tests on him. It was essential, but his father refused to explain why exactly it was. He hoped to find out soon, but he’d really had more on his mind with helping raise Karin and Yuzu, his twin sisters, and finding treasures to take back.

Ichigo’s expeditions had been successful. So far, they had managed to put in communication between the two cities and managed to get electricity through wind and water turbines. Ichigo’s discoveries had helped with that. He was proud to have made a difference in their lives. Still, he wanted to see all the technology on the Seireitei for himself.

Today, he was knee deep in the ocean when he heard someone scream. He looked up and around and saw a woman come tearing out of the woods near him. She was wearing a skirt, boots, a crop top, and had bright pink hair cut short on her head. She looked frightened. Ichigo didn’t hesitate; he ran right for her to see if he could help.

“No, you idiot, run!” she screamed and Ichigo stopped, seeing her face twist and the world went black with a flash of pain behind him.

Sometime later he woke up on what he knew had to be some sort of boat. He felt the rolling sensation of waves that always turned his stomach when he was out on the sea.

“Look, he woke up, Tiziano,” came a voice nearby.

Ichigo blinked and found himself looking up at man with striking blue eyes and hair nearly the same color as Ichigo’s orange locks with a black hat. Ichigo was lying on his back and he could tell his arms were bound against his back, one on top of the other and tied from wrist to elbow. What had he just gotten into? What kind of name was Tiziano anyway? It didn’t sound Japanese. This guy, and the girl from a moment ago were speaking accented tradetongue. Well, Ichigo knew it was English, but it had been called tradetongue in the most recent years as they began encountering people from other parts of the world.

“Who are you? Why…?” Ichigo asked and turned his head to see another man standing behind the girl with pink hair. This one had longish hair that was gray in color and much darker skintone than the other one.

“Tiziano is my name, and my friend is Squalo. You’re on our small boat, the Clash. You have the misfortune of having been there when we found Miss Trish here. Now, you belong to Diavolo. The Devil of Italy,” he said with smirk.

“Who?” Ichigo asked and tried to move, but found his knees were also bound together. There was no way he was getting up from here, he realized.

“These Japanese, they don’t understand Diavolo yet,” Squalo muttered. “You’ll all come under his rule soon enough.”

“Look, my father is with the Shinigami Foundation, I’m sure we can work…” Ichigo began but Tiziano snorted and kicked him twice in the ribs soundly, setting him to coughing in pain.

“Shut up. I don’t care about these Foundations. You belong to Diavolo. Squalo, grab the branding iron. We don’t want him to forget who he belongs to, now do we?” he commented and Ichigo looked at the girl with tearing eyes. Branding iron?

A few minutes later, he’d been dragged to sit up and Tiziano showed him a battery powered branding iron. The end of it was red hot, and he could see the shape was a wreath of leaves surrounding a fancy scripted D. His eyes widened at the sight and he shook his head, only to be kneed in the face by the one holding him. Squalo pulled the back of his shirt down to reveal the nape of his neck. He struggled a bit again but ended up being punched by Tiziano this time for his efforts. Tiziano moved behind him and pressed the searing hot iron to his neck while Squalo held him still. He passed out before they removed it, the pain becoming overwhelming almost immediately.

Waking up again, he found himself lying on his belly on the ship. He managed to get to a sitting up position with some effort and pain. The two men weren’t near him, so he turned his head painfully to look around. It was a small ship, but obviously made for long distance travel. The two men were the only ones on the ship and they now were talking at the helm. The girl was nearby.

“Hey,” he whispered to her. “Why do they want you?”

She looked at him and sighed, picking up her bound hands and dropping them into her lap again. “My father is Diavolo. He wants me dead, by his own hands, so he can rid himself of any family connections that would hinder him. I’m his one great mistake,” she answered with a nervous glance behind her at their captors. “I’m sorry you got mixed up into this. Maybe you’ll end up with a good family or something.”

“What do you mean?” Ichigo asked with a frown.

“She means that brand on your neck marks you as belonging to Diavolo. You’re a slave of his ownership, and you can’t run anywhere on this world without being returned to Italy and to him,” Tiziano explained as he came back toward him. “You may be lucky, get bought by some nice family who needs a farm hand. Or you could get very unlucky and get bought by some pervert who wants a sex toy to abuse.”

Ichigo’s eyes widened at the thought. “Your part of the world has slavery?”

“Well, depends on what part you mean,” snorted Squalo as he grabbed Ichigo by the hair and tipped his head back. “Huh, as pretty as his face is, I’m voting on the perverts getting hold of him. Too bad we messed it up some.”

Tiziano smirked. “Yeah, always a shame to waste a pretty face, but you never know. Some high-class bitch may need a stud to service her, too,” he muttered. “Either way, you’re done for. Any escaped slave has a bounty on their head when not owned by someone. So, you escape, you might hide for a while, until someone finds you, then you’re going to be found out by someone and dragged back home and then…well. Escaped slaves aren’t treated kindly. You’ll wish for something so mundane as a perverted abuser.”

“You’re the worst, all of you and my father too!” Trish screamed as they laughed at their two prisoners. “At least Dio doesn’t abuse his slaves…” She muttered the last as she looked away from them. Ichigo caught the glare she was given at the words. Now, Ichigo had another name to put with these people. Dio.

“Shut up, we’re already a day out of Japan. Crazy bitch took us on a run,” Squalo murmured as he headed back to the helm. “But grabbing her and a slave boy? We’re going to be treated like kings by the boss when we get home.”

“Whenever that is,” Tiziano muttered. “First we get back to the King Crimson, put this boy with the rest, and see what’s happening with the alliances out here in this pit.”  

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Narancia, what do you see up there?” Giorno Giovanna asked from the deck of the Gold Experience, a large salvage rig nearing the coast of Japan. They were perhaps a day out from the coastline now.

“Ah, shit, Giorno, you ain’t gonna believe this…” the short, dark-haired man in the crow’s nest said as he peered into the distance with his enhanced spyglass. Narancia Ghirga was the best long-distance viewer that any of them had ever met, and he was an excellent look out in every sense of the word.

Giorno sighed, running a hand over the blond curls above his forehead. “Now what?”

“There’s a boat, the Clash.” There was no mistaking the silver boat with the painted shark face on the front.

“Shit!” came Panacotta Fugo’s voice as he walked up. “What the hell is that pair doing out here?”

“Only one reason for them to be here,” Giorno said with a sigh. “The boss’s daughter. They’re after her just like we are. They couldn’t have come out this far alone; that means King Crimson is here close. We must avoid them at all cost.”

Bruno Buccellati, the captain of their boat, came up and looked at them. He shook his black hair out of his face and sighed. “Tiziano and Squalo. Which way are they headed?” he asked.

“Back this way,” Narancia said from above. “That means…?”

“They got what they came for. They found the boss’s daughter already,” Giorno said with a frown, turning toward Bruno with a careful eye. Leone Abbacchio, blue eyes scanning the horizon for the ship that was too far out yet to see, walked up and listened as the others spoke. He put his hands in his pockets and stared into the distance.

“What does that mean?” Fugo asked, turning his own dark eyes on the others.

“We take her back. We know that the boss is just going to kill her,” came the voice of their other main member, Guido Mista. He adjusted his blue and white hat over his dark hair and eyed the others.

“But if we go after them, we break with the rest of the gang for good. No turning back. How can we survive without the boss’s backing?” Fugo asked, starting to get a little nervous at what they were talking about doing.

Bruno sighed and looked at him. “Fugo, you know when we set out on this trip that it was to find Trish and keep her alive. We broke with the gang when we took off on our own. We’ll be fine. Passione hasn’t expanded toward Japan yet. We just have to salvage here for ourselves and find a new party interested in the things we find.”

“Besides, you’re going to let some girl get murdered just because she’s related to the boss?” Mista said with a snarl as he pulled his gun and began to load it. “I can’t do that.”

“So, what are we doing, then?” Giorno said as the boat became clearer on the horizon to the naked eye.

“Take the girl back and kill those two,” Bruno said as he headed back to the helm.

Giorno couldn’t argue with that. It was really the only course of action they had open to them now. If they wanted to save Trish, they had to kill the only two people who knew where she was.

On the Clash, the Gold Experience’s presence had already been detected. Tiziano glared through his own spyglass at the other boat.

“Who is it?” Squalo asked from the helm. “Are they turning this way?”

“Gold Experience, Bruno Buccellati’s ship. I heard he was going independent, but why is he this far out? Could they be following the girl’s trail too?” Tiziano asked no one in particular as he watched the other ship turn into an intercept course. “Damn, we’ve been spotted, and they’re coming toward us. Full speed, Squalo, let’s try and outrun them.”

“In this shit boat?” Squalo exclaimed and snorted with dismissal. “They’ve got us. And there’s more of them than there are of us. We’re done for,” he continued as he tried to get more speed out of the smaller, and slightly more agile boat. “Buccellati was a _capo_ when he got that salvage boat. That thing is probably all sorts of tricked out by now. He’s had that thing for three years already!”

“Just try to outrun them,” Tiziano said with a sigh as he stared at his two passengers. The boy was out cold, probably due to the branding. Trish was watching him with those piercing eyes and taking in every little detail. He’d never seen the boss, no one had, but he had a feeling that his gaze might look something like this girl’s.

The sea is unforgiving, and when one ship is so severely outgunned as the Clash was, they had no choice but to attempt escape. However, the Gold Experience was well outfitted and a full-sized boat. Unladen with salvage, the ship moved uncharacteristically fast, and quickly caught up with the smaller Clash. The battle between them was not much of one since Mista had uncanny ability with his pistols. Despite being too far out to make a shot for most, Mista managed to take out both Tiziano and Squalo, dropping them both off the boat into the ocean. The next hour was panic filled as they wrangled the now unmanned Clash and tried to avoid letting the two bound passengers slide into the stormy surf. After another tense hour of work, they had pulled both Trish and the other bound young man into the Gold Experience.

“Thank you, I’m Ichigo Kurosaki,” the orange haired boy spoke to them.

Bruno and Giorno took point with communicating with their new arrivals, even though the others had a lot of curiosity. After a round of introductions, they took Trish and Ichigo down to the mess area to sit them down and try and figure out their plan.

Giorno was walking behind Ichigo as they came down and noticed the mark under his hairline. He stopped him and pushed his hair up as the other man fussed at him for being held on the stair.

“Damn,” Giorno muttered as he shoved Ichigo a bit to get him going. Things just got more complicated.

“Bruno, he’s marked. They branded him,” Giorno said as Ichigo sat down by Trish and glared at Giorno. Giorno then went over to him and started checking him over. “And beat the hell out of, did you antagonize them on purpose?”

Ichigo winced as Giorno pulled his arms up and began to feel around his ribs. “They said things to Trish. I couldn’t be quiet, ow…” Ichigo muttered as he winced. “I didn’t like the idea of being branded either. The seemed to take offense at that fact.”

Giorno sighed, glad he kept his med kit in the kitchen. “Well, I’ll have you fixed up as much as I can,” he explained as he retrieved the box from beside a storage cabinet and returned.

Bruno sighed and shook his head. “I’ve got a branded slave and the daughter of the Devil of Italy on my boat now. I suppose it fits with the rest of this mismatched crew. After all, Narancia’s an ex-slave.”

Ichigo looked up at that. “Ex-slave?”

“Diavolo’s slaves aren’t often treated well, and sometimes they’re considered damaged goods. They have their brand cut off and they’re thrown out, usually to the Fomori,” Bruno explained. At the confused look that Ichigo got, Bruno continued. “The Fomori used to be human, but they’re wild people now, if you can even call them people. Fugo rescued Narancia, who you haven’t met yet. He bought him as he was about to be thrown away to those monsters in rough shape. Narancia was abused and his eye infected. He never got full use of the eye back, but his other one works better than most. He’s usually up in the crow’s nest. That’s a long story, though, and not what you need to know at the moment about your situation.”

“What exactly is my situation? I just want to go home…my father will be worried about me, and…” Ichigo began.

“That’s not possible.” Bruno’s words were sharp and left no room for that option. “You will have to wait to return until we’re sure it is safe for you to go back.”

“What? Why not? Just take me home!” Ichigo winced as Giorno began to wrap tape around his wounded ribs.

“You can’t go home as long as the King Crimson is nearby. They’re a fully functional slaver ship. You’ll be picked up again with that brand on your neck. You’re safest on the move. Your family is safest with you on the move. The men on that ship, they won’t mind collateral damage to get back Diavolo’s property,” Giorno explained as he finished wrapping the young man’s ribs. “A kid like you wouldn’t last long with them.”

“I’m not a kid,” Ichigo huffed. “I’m twenty, thank you.”

“You’re a kid compared to the rest of us with experience under our belts,” Giorno snapped back at him as he tipped his head back to look at a bad bruising around his face and eye.

“Who is this guy anyway?” Ichigo whined despite apparently trying not to.

Bruno nodded slowly. “Diavolo owns part of Italy. There are others in the area who have taken hold of the lands that are habitable as well. Diavolo’s Italy is run more like a mafia than a government, and none of us see it lasting for very much longer. There is only so long that a place can be run without real government. The nobles in the area rule in his stead, while he reaps the benefits of being their ruler. They are creatures of decadence and only want to satisfy their own desires.” Bruno stopped and glanced at Giorno. “In contrast, another man named Dio has taken hold of other areas like Egypt and areas to the east of Italy. While he’s no good man, he at least is a capable ruler of the lands, and he has sons…” Giorno looked up at Bruno’s pause.

“I have nothing to say on him,” Giorno said as he bandaged Ichigo’s left eye. “My father is not my concern. Not like I’ve ever actually met the man.”

Bruno smirked, expecting no less from Giorno about his estranged father. “Now, you, what happened with you getting wrapped up in this?”

Ichigo blinked, feeling odd with his eye covered like this now. “Ah, I actually find treasures, er, relics from the past days. I search the shores and see what I can find and take back to my father and others in the Shinigami Foundation.”

“Foundations, we’ve heard of those,” Bruno said with a sigh. “They rule out here, don’t they?”

Ichigo nodded. “I guess you could say that. There’s no real rulership, but we have a couple towns and we have these Fomori you talk about, we call them _Gaki_ , and the Arrancar which some of the researchers keep trying to capture, but my father says they should be left alone. Um, my pop is a doctor, but he doesn’t work for the Shinigami anymore, he just helps people in our town, Karakura. He’s been investigating the changes to people born since emergence.”

“Emergence?” Giorno asked as he progressed to wrapping up what seemed to be a badly sprained wrist on Ichigo’s left arm.

“What we all call coming out of the bunkers. I was born afterward, but my father was in cryogenic freeze until about twenty-two years ago. My mother was born in the underground, though,” Ichigo explained, grimacing as Giorno finished wrapping his arm up and sat down across from him.

“Interesting how different you see this ‘emergence’ than others,” Bruno commented. “We call it the Opening, and it was a time of constant strife among most people. I was born before the Opening, by a couple years, and it was a miracle my family got out of there with all our lives intact. I suppose that you having the Foundations to organize things helped,” Bruno mused.

“It wasn’t perfect. The Wandenreich are still a problem that are being dealt with.” Ichigo looked up suddenly when the room went silent. “What?”

“Interesting you mention them,” Giorno said with a cautious glance. “They have been to Italy and Diavolo is attempting to ally with them.”

“My mother…” Ichigo began and then paused. “Um, my mother was one of them. She abandoned them before she met my father. That…that was why she met him. She was living in the wilds, running from her past with them, and was attacked by a wandering beast. Pop saved her.” Ichigo paused and almost felt tears again for some reason. Why, he didn’t know. She’d been gone a long time already and he should have been past the tears. “She died when I was nine during another attack by a monstrous beast.”

“Alright, you and Trish stay put, I’ll be right back. Here,” Bruno spoke as he handed both of them a piece of fruit. It perhaps had been apples at one time but with all the changes, they were twice the size of the original fruit and carried a subtle tartness that was pleasant now.

Giorno walked up the stairs with Bruno and stopped at the top. “What do you think?” Bruno asked.

“I don’t think he’s lying. I say we head toward the island and get him off our boat as soon as we can,” Giorno muttered, glancing down the stairs as he heard Ichigo and Trish talking softly. “There’s something about him I don’t like. We need to put him off and back with his family.”

  
 


	2. Thirds and the Slavery Institution

“He’s been away for a while before,” Kisuke Urahara said as he and Isshin Kurosaki tromped through the brush nearing the other settlement of Morioh.

“Never more than a day or so. I know that close to the shore there’s a family he has stayed with when weather gets bad, but I can’t imagine him being gone this long. It’s been three days already,” Isshin commented as they came out of the brush to see a small house near the shoreline.

A man sat on the porch of the house with a wide set of shoulders. As they got closer, they could see he wore a white hat with a bill over short, dark hair. He had a long white jacket over a simple t-shirt and white pants with two belts crisscrossing his waist. His light green eyes were hard set and staring at them from the moment they came up the embankment.

From Ichigo’s description, Isshin guessed that this must be Jotaro Kujo, the man that lived here with his husband and infant son. Despite knowing that this family included a third, Isshin had trepidation about speaking with him at length, especially about his own son. There was a second and the door opened to allow a slender man to exit with curling reddish hair. He held a dark-haired baby in his arms that looked to be no more than a year old.

“Jotaro Kujo?” Kisuke asked as they approached. The other man stared but didn’t stand from his porch seat. “We came by to talk to you about a missing Karakura boy.”

“Only one of your ‘boys’ comes by here, often, that red-headed kid,” Jotaro commented. “He was here a couple days ago excited about finding some pieces of a transmitter. He’s not come back?”

“That’s not good,” the other man said. “I’m Kakyoin, Jotaro’s husband. And this is Jouta, our son,” he said, indicating the infant. “Ichigo has stayed with us a few times when it got too late to make the trip back to Karakura or it was storming. He’s gone out a few times on the boat with JoJo.”

“The boat?” Isshin asked.

“I’m a marine biologist,” Jotaro explained, still watching his visitors carefully. “I go out to study the marine life as it is now. Things have changed from the books that we learned with underground before the Emergence.”

“Ah,” Isshin nodded. “I’m Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo is my son, and you appear to know of us, at least?”

“By what Ichigo’s said, I recognize the man with the hat,” Jotaro said and nodded toward Kisuke. “Ichigo has spoken of him from time to time.”

“Kisuke Urahara,” Kisuke said with a slight bow. “It is good to meet you and your family as well. You are one of the first successful male birth parents I have yet to see. I believe everyone is referring to them as ‘thirds’ for whatever reason. A truly unique phenomenon I believe that was wholly unexpected.”

Isshin felt himself bristle at the turn in discussion. Talking about thirds wasn’t what he came here to do, and he didn’t want to tell anyone his own discoveries.

“Speedwagon Foundation helped with my birth of Jouta,” Kakyoin said. “They’re innovative with the new thirds, and we’ve found that there are female ones as well. Though the process is a bit reversed as the females can impregnate other females and receptive third males. It is interesting how all of this happened. I’m surprised you know so little…”

“Shinigami Foundation is a bit more on the hands-on research aspect. They’ve taken a couple as experimental subjects. There is some debate as to the ethics of the research,” Isshin said through clenched teeth.

“Ah. That explains why you are so reluctant to discuss the fact your son is one of us,” Kakyoin said with a smirk. Isshin’s face changed to shock. “There’s a scent that follows us. We can detect each other for some reason. Non- thirds can’t smell it. Some sort of pheromone.”

Isshin shifted uncomfortably. “Does he know?”

“I haven’t discussed it with him, though my advice is to do so. If your son were to suddenly become pregnant, he would have quite the shock,” Kakyoin explained with a shrug of his shoulders.

“He’s not active in dating anyone,” he said slowly. “But he’s missing now.”

“There’s been missing men and women from Morioh lately. Josuke was just saying that a few have gone without a trace, all young and able-bodied. There’s rumors of slavers rounding them up,” Jotaro said slowly as he thought. “I haven’t seen anything out in the shallows, but further out there have been at least three boats sighted. Two are trade and salvage ships, but the largest of them is unknown to me.”

There was a silence before it was broken by a call from the direction of the shore. “Oi, Kujo! Trade is open!”

Jotaro stood up and walked toward the shore with his hands in his pocket. “Come, you can ask these men. They are from far away to the west, so they may know something,” he said as he sauntered down and away.

Isshin and Kisuke followed the large man down to where a small boat had come into the shallows carrying a few people and some crates. Out further, a large repurposed oil tanker was anchored, obviously where the smaller boat had come from. One of the men from the boat took off in the direction of Moriah.

A man with blue hair and a woman with blonde hair both came off and pulled crates up onto the shore. When both stood up straight, Isshin saw the black circles that marred their skin.

“Arrancar,” he muttered just loud enough that Kisuke could hear him. “What are they doing with this group I wonder?”

“Risotto Nero takes in anyone he finds useful,” Jotaro said as he passed them. “He doesn’t let anyone stay that can’t pull their weight, though. So, anyone on that ship, the Metallica, they’re good for some sort of labor.”

“There are other ships?” Isshin asked as he watched people begin to trickle down from Morioh to look at the goods that the ship had pulled onto the shore. It seemed trade was done with precious metals, gems, and artifacts. He watched several things change hands that looked to be parts he had already at home that belonged to a transmitter.

“One other that I know of that comes for trade, the Gold Experience. Similar, from the western areas around Italy like this group. They know each other but don’t seem to be friends,” Jotaro informed them as they waited to see who came toward them.

The blue haired Arrancar came forward, leaving the others behind. “Yo, Kujo. New friendlies?” he called as he approached them.

“You met the redheaded kid last time you were here, the one that goes treasure diving in the shallows. This is his father. Kid went missing. Well, not a child, he’s old enough to be out on his own. You lot seen anything?” Jotaro asked as another man came up behind the Arrancar. Jotaro motioned to them. “Grimmjow is the Arrancar, and this is Nero, captain of this ship,” he said as he motioned to the other man.

Isshin was taken aback for the slightest moment at the man’s eyes. They had black sclera and red irises. A variation but a coloration that was becoming more common among people on the surface. There were eight others, and his son, who shared that coloration at times of great stress, though the iris was gold rather than red. This Nero appeared to have permanently colored eyes. He was tall and slender with long dark hair pulled back.

“A missing young adult? You may never see him again, I fear. The King Crimson is in these waters,” Nero stated as he stopped and crossed his arms.

“King Crimson?” Isshin asked.

“A slaving freighter from our area, near old Italy. They have other reasons to be here, no doubt, but on the way, they’ll collect slave stock.” Nero glanced down to the sea and back to the others. The trading was going well it seemed as he looked amused by it. “Sorry to say, if your boy got tagged by them, he’s as good as dead.”

“But he’s…” Isshin started then stopped, not continuing.

Nero smirked. “Ah, he’s one of us, eh? One of the ones who has started to change. Not quite an Arrancar, but closer than the other humans.” Nero’s keen eyes shifted to where Kakyoin stood with the infant clutched in his arms. “Maybe even a third like Jotaro’s man, huh?” Isshin tried to school his expression but failed at it. “Yeah, prime stock. Those go for the highest prices in the slave markets. Your boy is gone if that’s the case. He won’t be able to hide from the scanning instruments they have on there.”

“But we don’t know if he’s there for sure,” Kisuke commented, looking between them.

“True, maybe got picked up by Buccellati,” Grimmjow said with a thoughtful expression. Nero glared at him. “Hey, I know you don’t like the guy, but it is possible. Last time you met up for any time was in Taiwan. Maybe we’ll meet on the way back. But I can’t see Buccellati keeping anyone on board that don’t want to be.”

“Hate to admit it, but you’re right,” Nero muttered. “He even kept those females that thought they could buy their way onto the boat with showing their breasts, nice or not. Sex is not a commodity on my ship, and that’s all they knew how to barter with.”

Grimmjow snorted. “They coulda learned other work. They couldn’t help having learned to use their bodies to get what they wanted,” he murmured as they watched the people begin to leave with their trades.

“You looking at anything?” Nero asked Jotaro.

Jotaro held up a datacard and smirked. “Music. Ten hours. Heavy beat. What’ll it buy me?”

Nero’s eyes lit up as much as the nearly black orbs could. “Anything,” he said and reached for it. Jotaro pulled his hand back and walked down to see what exactly had been brought ashore.

After another twenty minutes, Jotaro had a stock of infant clothes, a mixture of toys and computer datacards, and what looked like a random box of parts for a computer. Nero closed up, everyone pulling things back out to sea and to head on to the next port, which would be Karakura now that they’d finally opened it further north. Isshin was left with more worry than he began with.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo wasn’t sure what to think about all that had just happened. To be honest, he didn’t want to even think of moving from where he sat right now. He ached and hurt in all sorts of places from the beating he’d taken from the other ship, and now to find out what was going on with the mark on the back of his neck and what it meant… 

He was startled when someone seemed to suddenly be next to him sniffing him. He gasped and nearly fell backward off the bench he sat on to see a blond kid in what looked like a wolfskin cape sniffing him. He had vivid purple eyes and they glittered in interest. Trish was staring as the boy went from sniffing Ichigo to sniffing her just as a woman came in from the back entrance to the dining area.

“Wonderweiss, what are you… oh new people!” she said. Now that Ichigo could see her, she wore a green crop top and skirt and had almost as green hair. She smiled at them and ruffled the blonde-haired kid’s hair, Wonderweiss apparently.

“New, good,” the blonde said and then wandered to sit down on the end of the table.

Ichigo stared at the boy for a moment, not sure how to react to being smelled by someone. It was definitely one of the more unusual things that had happened to him lately. Considering everything that had happened, that was saying something.

Hearing footsteps, he looked up to see the one named Fugo come down from the deck. He grabbed a tin cup and poured something into it before sitting down.

“Hey, Nel, what’s doing?” he asked the green haired woman.

“Nothing much, I was coming up to see what had been going on, felt a bit bumpy downstairs for a while.”

“We were saving these two from the Clash. Those two are fish food now,” Fugo said and sipped his drink.

Nel nodded. “Who do we have here, then?” she asked and smiled at both Trish and Ichigo.

“I’m Diavolo’s daughter, Trish,” she said to Nel. “I’m the cause of all the trouble with him,” she gestured to Ichigo.

“Um, yeah,” Ichigo said with a shrug and rubbed the back of his neck where it was still sore. “I got branded by those guys on their boat, and I’m from near here. I ran onto her on the shore where I was searching for stuff in the water.”

“And your name?” she said with a smirk.

“Oh, sorry, Ichigo.”

“Itsygo and Trish,” she said then turned a bit red. “Oh, sorry, sounds like I can’t say your name quite right. Oh well. Itsygo it is!” she got up and patted Wonderweiss on the back. “Come on, let’s have a look up top, you can say hi to Narancia.”

Wonderweiss got up and followed her as she took the steps up to the deck.

“So, what’s the deal with him?” Ichigo asked as he watched them go.

“Him?” Fugo said almost wistfully as he looked after them leaving. “Narancia found him one night. We were in Greece, Buccellati, Narancia, and me, and we made camp. Felt funny, like being watched, y’know? Narancia went and looked around, see if we were in the path of a Fomori pack or something, and when he came back, the boy was following him.” Fugo shrugged and looked at Ichigo. “We heard some movement, and we knew that we could be close to Fomori territory, can’t really tell with them since their borders change by the day. But he had him behind him.” Fugo picked up his cup and took a drink. “Kid was wearing animal skins and clothes he’d scavenged, looked like, and had this makeshift sword. Narancia said that he’d sniffed him, like he did you just now, and obviously he wasn’t Fomori. He knows a few words, but not too many, and he knows his name. He still growls when he hears the word Fomori. Buccellati thinks that maybe his family was killed by them when he was young. He must have got away and was living on his own. So now we keep him on board with us.”

Ichigo was quiet for a long time before he spoke again. “These _Gaki_ , Fomori, you said that Narancia was being given to them.” His hand went to the back of his neck to rub against the brand again that still hurt quite a bit. “That’s not good, right?”

“See, when a slave reaches the end of their worth, sometimes they’ll cut off the brand and they’re caged up and set out to be given to the Fomori,” Buccellati said as he returned and sat down again.  He looked at Fugo who looked memory fogged. “They’re cannibalistic people who have lost everything that ever made them human. They travel in packs like animals and prey on anyone who gets in their way. They physically look different, jagged teeth, and they even litter like animals. Not all infants reach adulthood because they dominate each other from birth. Sometimes, used up slaves are given to them in order to keep them sated, if you will.”

Another silence descended on the room before Fugo spoke up again. “You don’t know Narancia much yet, but he’s a handful. I guess I’m the only one that can handle him at his worst, and even I don’t know exactly what all happened to him. He was in a little cage, eye badly infected, and covered with other wounds. He’d been abused terribly. They let me have him almost for free. I took him back and we got him healthy again. His eye never healed, but seems his other one took over for him,” Fugo said with a sly smile. “We fight as much as we fuck,” Fugo said this with a smirk. “Which is to say a lot of both because he’s a fuckin brat. He don’t know when to shut up and he don’t know how to turn off the nightmares. So, we keep ourselves busy.”

Ichigo nodded, knowing that these people had been through a lot more than he had so far in his life. He supposed in a way he was a “kid” to them since he’d been safe in Karakura most of his life. Well, Karakura and the bunker. Either way, he’d been around others and family, where these people had been out in the world.

“But that’s a whole other story,” came Giorno’s voice from the back of the area. “We should show our guests to their quarters for the night and while they’re on board.”

Ichigo looked up and saw the other man waiting with a look of mild annoyance. He didn’t think this guy liked him at all, he thought to himself as he limped after the other young man and Trish. He had to give it to those guys, they knew how to lay down a hell of a beating on a person and not kill them. Of course, now they were dead and Ichigo wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Despite what they had done to him, he wasn’t sure he would have put a death sentence on their heads. Of course, it wasn’t like he could do much when he was just along for the ride.

They headed deeper into the ship and came to a doorway. “This is the bath area. We have co-ed bath facilities,” Giorno said as he pushed the door open. Ichigo blinked because there was someone inside already, a shorter man with black hair and his back to him. From where he stood, Ichigo could see a horrible scar on the back of his neck in the same place that he himself had been branded. He assumed this was the guy Fugo was talking about. He glanced over and continued his bathing as Giorno closed the door again.

“They just built some bath houses near Karakura and Morioh, sento-style they were called my dad said, and they look kind of like this, not co-ed though,” he commented as he glanced at Trish who was blushing mildly.

“Why co-ed?” Trish said as they walked further from the baths.

“Saves space and water,” Giorno commented as they came to another door that he pushed open. Inside was a room with bunks built into the wall. “Here we are. Pick a spot and have a rest. If you need anything, find one of us, and there’s others on the ship too, so don’t be surprised by other people popping in and out. There are thick blankets at the end of each bunk; it gets cold during the night. You shouldn’t be disturbed while sleeping, though.”

With that, Trish and Ichigo found themselves alone in the quarters and wondering exactly what was going to happen next.

“I think I just want to go home,” Ichigo commented as he fell back into a bunk, wincing from the various aches he still had. After some time, both of them had fallen into deep sleeps.

Ichigo woke during the night when he heard a noise. Half asleep, he found his way out of the room and into the doorway of another room where the one named Narancia was sleeping. He was suffering a nightmare it seemed. Ichigo was about to go in and see if he could help when he saw the blond boy move up onto the bed and nuzzle with him, licking his face gently until he calmed. He saw that the green haired girl was there too, apparently summoned by the noise as well. She leaned over and ruffled Wonderweiss’s hair for a second before she turned away. Ichigo had no idea what to think about this ship, but he was sure that life was more interesting for it.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

“Aw, come on, can’t I just pick one of the pretty boys out and play with him a little bit? He’ll be mostly intact when I’m done,” the woman with white hat emblazoned with the wheel symbol whined to one of the King Crimson’s men. Bambietta Basterbine was one of the Wandenreich that was aboard the large slaver ship at the moment. Her interest had been piqued by the fresh slaves that were being held below deck.

Secco, a man who could only be described as being primal in nature, glared at her through the leather mask he wore. He wore a bodysuit of leather that covered most of his body, and left an opening for his eyes, nose and mouth, but not much else.

“You don’t touch the merchandise or there will be problems.” He smirked at her. “You don’t want problems, now do you?”

Bambietta, despite being one of the tougher of the Wandenreich, winced at that smirk. Yahweh didn’t want them to piss off these guys, so she backed down. Even as much as she wanted to take out some of her sadistic energy on someone, she didn’t want to mess with these guys. Slavers, especially though that didn’t care about how they were perceived, were a tough lot. Plus, these two on the King Crimson were rather creepy, and she’d come on board with their resident creep Giselle. She seemed to be fascinated by what happened.

Yahweh wanted an alliance with this Diavolo, and Bambietta was beginning to see why. The man was cruel and powerful. She glanced down at the slave pens and smirked. She really did want to play just a little with one of those boys. Just a bit. But she wasn’t going to push these guys too far. Something told her that the other one, the one named Cioccolatta, would gladly see her and any of them dead, or worse.

Secco headed back up to the deck but Bambietta walked around the pens. They were simple cages with cots lining the outside edges. Right now, they had collected quite a few from the area, ten to be exact. She wasn’t sure why they liked to pick up local slaves as they moved along, but she supposed it was a good source of information for the areas they went into. Fresh sources of good slaves also had to be found as their own sources dwindled back where they had come from.

“Why are you doing this to us?” asked one of the women in the cells, a young woman with lighter colored hair and large breasts.

“I’m not doing anything,” Bambietta said with a smirk. She turned and headed up to the deck again herself.

Inside the cell, Orihime Inoue glanced over at her fellow Karakura captives. Chad Yasutora and Keigo Asano were both equally as unsure of their futures as they watched the strange woman leave. One of the others, a woman with pink pigtails named Riruka sighed and glanced at a tall man with long brown hair named Kugo. They had been outside of Karakura when they were captured by these slavers.

Orihime sat down on one of the cots and glanced at the next cell where several people from Morioh had been placed. Anne, Toshikazu Hazamada, Aya Tsuji, and Ayana Hirose were silent. They had lost most of their hope that they would ever leave the ship they were on.

The last one, an Arrancar named Illfordt Ganz sat close to the door and waited for anything to happen. He knew his brother was out there and would be looking for him. He just had to keep that thought in mind.  

 


	3. The Raiding Party and Those Waiting

Morning came far too early for Ichigo’s liking as he and Trish were awakened by a knock on the door. Breakfast, no doubt, would see them encountering even more interesting individuals on the ship they now traveled.

“What do you think they’ll do with us?” Trish asked as she sat up on her bunk and looked over at Ichigo.

“I don’t know that they’d do anything with us,” Ichigo told her as he stood up and stretched. “They seem to be good people, and I think they’ll take me home.”

“I wish I knew what I’ll do. With my father after me, I don’t know where I’ll go,” Trish said with a deep sigh.

There was a pounding on the door again. “Breakfast, come on,” came a voice they were unfamiliar with.

Trish and Ichigo both headed to the door and found whoever it was gone. They went back the hallway they had taken the night before and found their way to the kitchen area. There were people there they were unfamiliar with and it was noisy already.

“Guys, welcome our new friends,” Bruno said from near the counter.

A really tall man with an eyepatch sat at one end of the table and a sleepy looking man with brown hair sat at the other. Beside the second man was a girl with light green hair. She was short and very petite. The tall, lanky man smiled a broad grin and looked at the pair of them.

“Well, if it ain’t a couple pretties. I’m Nnoitra, and down at the other end is Cayote Starrk and his little sister, Lilynette. I’m guessing you met Bruno and those boys already, though. Yo! Narancia, what you doing up so early? I thought Fugo was on watch last night, shouldn’t you be cuddling?”

Ichigo looked up to notice that Narancia had come into the room. He stuck his tongue out at Nnoitra and grabbed a piece of fruit before sitting down at the table.

“Yeah, he just laid down to get some sleep. I thought I’d come get breakfast. We don’t have to be together if we’re both off duty,” Narancia said with snort. Nnoitra smirked at him but continued with his breakfast, eating quickly.

“Gotta eat and move ‘round here,” he said to Ichigo. “I’m lucky, I beat the girls today.”

“The girls?” Ichigo asked as Nnoitra stood up and headed up the stairs out of the kitchen. Just as he left two more figures entered the room to get food, a blonde woman with a severe look and a dark-haired woman with pigtails.

“Newbies?” the dark-haired girl asked as she flopped in the seat beside Ichigo. “I’m Menoly, this is Loly. Were you two on that ship we went after yesterday?”

“Yeah, I’m Trish and that’s Ichigo,” Trish said from Ichigo’s other side as she watched the newcomers.

“You look beat to hell,” Loly said to Ichigo as she sat down across from him. “By the bandages, looks like Giorno got ahold of you. Where is he?” she wondered as she looked around.

“Hasn’t come out yet,” Bruno commented as he sat down at the end of the table where Nnoitra had vacated. “He’s in one of his moods again.”

Ichigo’s head was spinning a little from all the motion and the people. He grabbed a piece of fruit and wondered if Giorno would be coming for breakfast. He thought he was interesting and of course as another student of medicine, Ichigo wondered what interesting things he’d seen in his travels. He looked up to see the object of his thoughts enter.

“Good, someone summoned you for breakfast. There’s a lot of people that come and go, so best to get here early.” Giorno paused as he walked behind Starrk. Ichigo noticed that he’d fallen over asleep in his chair. “Coyote, don’t sleep here, go up on the deck and get some air or go to your room,” Giorno told him with a shove to his back.

“Ah, I’ll go,” Starrk said as he sat up in the chair. Beside him, the green haired Lilynette stood up and stretched.

“Same. I’ll make sure he sleeps somewhere appropriate,” she said as she poked him in the side.

The two of them headed up the stairs to the deck and Nel came down them followed by two men. They were rather awkward seeming men, one tall and thin, the other wider and rotund. She was talking to them as she walked.

“There is no reason that they’ll come this way, Pesche,” she told the thin one.

“But what if they do?” the rotund one asked.

“Dondochakka, I think they have other concerns than our ship,” she told him.

“Who?” Bruno asked as the three came and sat down.

“King Crimson. She’s sailing roughly parallel to us; has been for a while,” Nel told him. “These two are convinced they’ll attack us, but I don’t see a reason.”

Bruno frowned and looked thoughtful. Ichigo could tell that he was thinking on what had just been said, and not in a passing manner. So, it was possible for this other vessel to attack them.

“Wasn’t the ship we were on from the King Crimson?” Trish said with trepidation.

“It was, but there would have to be something connecting us to that. I doubt the Clash has even been missed yet. But just in case, we’ll alter course and see what the King Crimson does. If she stays with us, we’ll known there’s a problem. I’m confident in our ability to defend ourselves, even from that ship. We’re a formidable ship on our own.”

“Still, would they come after us?” Ichigo asked, hand creeping to the back of his still aching neck where the brand throbbed.

“Not unless we gave them a reason,” Bruno told him. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to let them get ahold of you.”

“You said that they were a slaver ship from around Italy. Why are they here?” Ichigo asked, wondering what had brought the ship all the way to Japan.

“Me, I fear,” Trish said with a sigh. “I ran from home as soon as I found out that my father was looking for me. I took a transport ship from India to Japan. It seems like I didn’t run far enough away…”

Bruno nodded. “I don’t think there is such a thing as far enough away from him. My guess is that the Clash is supposed to rendezvous with them soon. They will be waiting for Trish to be brought on board. Still, why they’re so close to the coastline…”

“Wait, if they’re a slaver ship, what if they’ve picked up people here?” Ichigo gasped with the sudden realization. “Would they do that?”

Thinking about it, Bruno was sure of the answer to that. “They’ll have taken anyone on board they could find that was young and in good condition. Diavolo is running out of people to enslave, so his enterprises have been working steadily east.”

“If there’s people on that ship that are from Morioh or Karakura, we have to help them! We have to get them off!” Ichigo clenched his fist and scowled hard at the table.

Nel dropped into the seat beside Ichigo. “That would take a full-scale raid on their boat. Could we do something like that?”

Giorno scoffed. “Of course not. We’re not putting ourselves in danger for this. The King Crimson is—” he started but Bruno put a hand on his arm.

“We can’t just leave those people there and go back home knowing what’s waiting for them.” Bruno knew that Giorno cared, he was just worried about them.

Licking his lips, Giorno sighed sharply. “I suppose you’re right. Without Tiziano and Squalo, they’re down two people. There can’t be that many on board running it if they’re expecting to take back slave cargo.”

“So, this guy, this Diavolo, he wants to conquer other places? Not just control his area of Italy?” Ichigo wondered as he ate the fruit he’d picked out thoughtfully.

Nel patted him on the back and grabbed a piece of fruit for herself. “We’ll go up and keep an eye on them,” she said and headed up the stairs followed by the other two that had come down with her.

Bruno nodded. “He wants to establish new slave trade pipelines with the Wandenreich. He seems to think he can secure an alliance with them.”

“The Shinigami Foundation and the Speedwagon Foundation won’t let that happen,” Ichigo stated and crossed his arms, wincing at the pain that lance through his wrist.

“Diavolo is ruthless. He won’t let anyone stand in his way,” Bruno explained.

“No matter what Diavolo intends, our problem now is getting those people off the King Crimson. If I remember correctly, Cioccolatta and Secco were stationed on there. They might be the only ones on it right now,” Giorno crossed his arms and leaned against the doorframe. “If we are going after them, we’re going to have to be smart about it.”

Bruno nodded and chewed his lip thoughtfully for a minute. “A ship that size, they could handle, what…thirty passengers?”

 Giorno nodded. “Easily thirty, more if they have cells built into the place to keep their captures.”

“What can we do to get onto a boat like that? Won’t we be noticed as soon as we get close?” Ichigo asked as he adjusted in his seat.

“We’ll have to bank on them not expecting us to actually try and get on the boat,” Bruno mused with a frown.

“Are they heading back already, or are they staying around here?” Giorno asked.

“I’ll ask Nel, see what she’s seen,” Bruno headed up the stairs to find out what direction the other ship was sailing in.

“They could be empty,” Trish told Ichigo softly. “They could have decided not to pick up people here.”

Giorno shook his head. “I doubt that. Though they would have been smart about it and kept to grabbing people that were away from the towns at the time. Whoever they grabbed will be able to work for some reason.”

“Do they really use a lot of slaves like that?” Ichigo asked, rubbing the back of his neck again and wincing at the pain from the brand.

Giorno nodded. “Diavolo believes in the idea that the weak should serve the strong. So, slaves are those that he considers weak and need to be controlled. The nobles that run different areas of Diavolo’s lands have slaves for all parts of their operations. They’re often sacrificed to make forays into the thick of the wilds.” Giorno sighed, looking up as Bruno came back down. “Well?” he asked.

“The King Crimson is stationary. I think they’re waiting for the Clash. It won’t take them long to figure out something’s happened to them,” Bruno explained as he came and sat down at the table again. “That puts them about a day out of the coastline of Japan. We have no way of telling if, and how many, people they have on board.”

“We’ll have to send a small boarding party over,” Giorno sighed, stepping aside as Loly and Menoly got up and headed back to the rooms.

“I should go,” Ichigo said with a decisive nod of his head.

“Now, hold on, you shouldn’t be anywhere near that ship!” Giorno glared at the back of his head.

“I can help, though, if there’s people from Karakura and Moriah on there, who says they’re going to trust you guys any more than the guys that have them? I can make sure they know we’re the good guys!” Ichigo didn’t say that he wanted to show that he, too, could be useful. He hated that he’d been rescued like a damsel in distress already by these people.

Bruno silenced Giorno with a look. “He has a point.”

Giorno sighed and shook his head. “I’m going to, someone has to keep an eye on him,” he mumbled almost too low to be heard.

“We’ll send Nnoitra, Starrk, Mista, and Leone,” Bruno said. “I don’t see any of them turning down the chance to free some captured slaves from the King Crimson. I’ll go up and talk to them. We need to do this quickly if we’re going to pull it off while they’re anchored out there.”

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Grimmjow wasn’t looking forward to having to hide out on the ship while they put in the trade with the Shinigami town. Karakura was thick as thieves with those that wanted to “research” how the Arrancar came to be. From what he knew of the others who had been captured and managed to escape, the researcher on the floating city of Seireitei was crazy and unscrupulous. Since they had awakened from their slumber, being an Arrancar had gotten a whole lot harder.

The Arrancar, and the _Gaki_ actually, were both products of the world. Both had been created through a mixture of nature and the nanites released to fix the planet. The Arrancar had been affected in a different way and had retained their humanity where the _Gaki_ had not. Still closer to animals than normal humans, the Arrancar were pack based like their _Gaki_ cousins. They, however, did not have the same inclinations of violence.

Grimmjow leaned over the railing and watched as the non-Arrancar helped with the movement of the crates to the shore. People were already gathering to see what was going on. A short way in the distance, he could see the beginnings to the edges of the town.

“What’s on your mind?” a voice from behind him interrupted Grimmjow’s thoughts.

He turned to see Formaggio standing behind him. “Just thinking about things.”

“Like what?” he asked, leaning backward against railing.

“Just the state of things over in the town. Don’t like not being able to go on a run,” Grimmjow responded.

“Yeah, but don’t want you or anyone else to get snatched up. I dunno what I’d do without you Arrancar on the ship, especially you or Luppi.”

Grimmjow snorted at the name. Formaggio smirked. “Why is it that you hate Luppi so much anyway?”

“Little bastard took my rank,” he answered.

“You’ve said that before, what’s that mean anyway?” he asked.

“Arrancar are ranked according to power or ability.  Tia ranks high because of her smarts, but some of us rank based on our physical power. That’s why I hate Ulquiorra so much too. Can’t seem to defeat that smug emotionless bastard.”

Formaggio nodded. “Okay, I get it, but you know who I sleep with doesn’t change who I’m friends with,” he said and ran a hand over his head.

“Mates aren’t like just normal partners, though. We mate for life in some cases, so a chosen mate like you chose Luppi makes a difference. I don’t know how to explain it better. We’re more animal and pack orientated than you normal humans.” Grimmjow sighed and thought again about how he would have been willing to kill Luppi given the chance no matter his friendship with Formaggio.

“Well, I guess you’re outta luck here on this ship, hmm? Or you interested in someone here?” Formaggio asked with a smirk.

Grimmjow shook his head. “Nah, thought about going to the other boat, though, see if there’s some others on there that might be compatible with me. None of the Arrancar on this boat are my type.”

“What is your type?” Formaggio wondered, looking out on the shore. It looked like quite a crowd had gathered while they were talking.

“Huh, don’t know that I know,” Grimmjow muttered. “Just know they ain’t here.”

“What do you think Risotto would say if you wanted to go to the Gold Experience?” Formaggio leaned with his back against the side of the ship.

“He won’t care, but I imagine he won’t go out of his way to help me leave. I’ll have to find my own way, I guess,” he sighed and looked back onto the boat to see if anyone was milling around above deck. It looked like Tier and the girls had all stayed below.

Formaggio nodded. “Yeah, I can see him being like that about it. If you did leave, I’d miss having you around.”

“I’m just afraid that either Luppi or Ulquiorra are gonna say the wrong thing to me, and things are going to get nasty. Risotto don’t want no infighting among us, and I just can’t guarantee that it won’t happen with those two.” Grimmjow watched as the crowd began to thin and people began leaving the shoreline with their trades. “I know myself enough to know that one of these days, I’m gonna hurt one of them, or get myself hurt trying.”

Formaggio gave a long sigh. “Guess you’re right about that. To see you or Luppi get hurt would be a shame. And you can’t be useful if you’re hurt on the ship. I don’t think Risotto would like that too much.”

Grimmjow wondered exactly how much patience he had left for those two. He would say his feelings toward them was barely contained rage, and one day it was going to blow. He watched as the boats got loaded up by the humans on their crew. It would have been faster if he’d been able to go down there, he knew. He looked up at the sky that was starting to cloud over.

“I think I’m gonna talk to Risotto about switching boats. I just don’t know how he was going to continue to cope with the two of them. Better I get out of the situation than do something dumb,” he glanced out to see the boats were almost back to the ship by now.

“What if the other ship has people you can’t get along with, too?” Formaggio asked, looking out on the incoming boats. It started to rain on them finally as thunder sounded in the distance.

“Then, I’m screwed, and I might as well go back to roaming the wilds to try and kill _Gaki_ who get to close.” Grimmjow pushed back and walked over to help pull the crates back onto the ship.

He’d decided, though, already. The chances of finding a mate were higher if he went to the other boat because he knew that he didn’t have compatibility with anyone on this ship. He tolerated some of them, but besides Formaggio, he didn’t have any close ties to anyone.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Karin and Yuzu were interested when someone came into the town and announced that there was a trading ship at the port. They both wanted to see what they had and what they could trade for. They looked up to see the Shinigami people coming out to do some trading as well. They ran and caught up with one of the new arrivals to Karakura, a redheaded guy named Renji that was pretty fun to hang out around. There had been a lot of new people added to the population of the previously small town of Karakura.

They saw the medical woman, Retsu Unohana, with a box in her arms. Karin thought she had the nicest hair, long and braided down in front of her.

“It should be safe if we go with everyone, right?” Yuzu asked, obviously worried about people that were missing from the town.

“Yeah, no one is going to bother us with so many people around. What did you bring to trade with?” Karin looked at Yuzu and held out her own satchel of parts she’d collected over the last few weeks.

Yuzu opened the bag at her hip and showed off a bunch of iridescent shells. “I found these last time we were at the shore. They’re all in tact even. None of them are broken.”

“That should get you something. Look, here we are. Wow, a lot of people came to trade,” Karin said as they approached the crates that had been brought ashore. There were probably twenty or more people, which from as small a place as Karakura, was a lot.

Karin and Yuzu walked up beside Unohana to see what she was trading. It looked like she had an assortment of small saplings and seed packets.

“I was wondering if you could use these, we have more than we can use,” Unohana told the blond-haired man standing behind a crate.

The blond, a man named Melone, smiled and nodded. “We can definitely use these. Molto bene!”

Karin and Yuzu watched a few other transactions happen as they looked through the stuff in a couple of crates. They heard someone else talking.

“Did you hear about the boat that washed up on shore? It was silver with a shark painted on it.”

“I heard it already got bought by someone in Moriah,” the other person answered.

“You can’t just say it any way you want!” Karin heard, looking over to see a man with blue ringleted hair arguing with Renji over a crate. He looked rather upset and Renji just looked confused.

“Ghiaccio, stop picking fights with the locals!” Melone yelled down at them.

Yuzu showed Melone her shells. He agreed to trade for them if she found something she liked. She looked through the crates until she found some treasures of various types from far off places to trade for her shells. Above them the sky began to cloud up as they traded.

“Looks like rain is coming!” Melone shouted and started putting away the wares. “Before I leave, do you girls know if there’s been an Arrancar around here with blond hair? Kinda long?”

Karin shook her head. “No, but we’ve got people missing too from out city.

Melone sighed as he put the lid back on the crate. “I was afraid of that. With the King Crimson in these waters, that’s not good for people that might be missing.”

Karin and Yuzu waved as they headed back with the large crowd of people to Karakura. Thunder rolled in the distance, so it looked like Melone was right about the rain. They ran to their house as quickly as they could.

Inside, Isshin didn’t like what he was hearing. “Who is missing now?”

“Orihime, Chad, Keigo, and from the outer edges of town, Riruka and Kugo,” Kisuke said with a sigh. “They’re nowhere to be found. It isn’t like there’s a lot of places for them to disappear to. And it is suspicious with what Nero said about that other ship being near the coastline.”

Isshin leaned back in the seat and looked up. Karin and Yuzu came running in from outside as a rain shower had suddenly started.

“Anything, Pop?” Karin asked expectantly.

“Nothing yet, but we’re still looking.” He reached out and patted her on the arm.

Yuzu looked at Karin, then between Isshin and Kisuke. “I heard there were others missing too.”

“Now, we don’t want to panic anyone,” Kisuke said with a gentle smile at the two sixteen-year-olds. “Just seems that we’re having a few people that aren’t where they should be.”

“Yeah, but it’s scary! All the others are staying in the town, and we’re not going to the shore by ourselves anymore,” Yuzu exclaimed, shaking her hair out of her face.

Isshin gave them a strained smile. “I know it is, but if you stay near the town center, you should be fine. We still don’t know for sure what’s happened to any of them.”

Yuzu looked tearful again. “Are we ever going to see our brother again?”

He sighed, putting his hand on her arm gently. “We’ll see him again. Just believe that we will. Everyone’s looking for the people that have gone missing.”

“What if they don’t find anything?” Karin asked, looking at her father seriously. “What if they’re gone?”

“Now, now, let’s not jump to conclusions, we don’t know all the facts…” Kisuke started.

“What facts do we not know?” Karin snapped, glaring at him. “We have missing people and strange ships have been sighted in the water nearby. They could be kidnappers.”

Isshin swallowed hard because that was his biggest fear. He had no way to assuage the girls’ fears about where their people, including their brother, had gone. He sighed, not sure what to do.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

 “We have to move quickly before they move again,” Bruno said as he looked through the spyglass at the King Crimson. “Take the boat and try to get on board and off without being spotted. Find out if they’re carrying slaves or if they’re empty. If they’ve got slaves on board, come back and we’ll sail up to them and take them on fully. This is just an info gathering mission!” Bruno spoke loud enough that everyone could hear him.

Ichigo and Giorno stood at the side of the ship as Leone and Mista got down into the smaller boat, followed by Nnoitra and Starrk. Six people fit in the small lifeboat easily, with it being sized to carry eight, or more if it was packed with people together.

“Ichigo,” Bruno said and turned to him as he moved to get in the lifeboat. “I’m only sending you to make sure the people that have been captured don’t cause more trouble if they are there. Your job is to convince them to hold on a little longer while we get the Gold Experience over to the King Crimson.”

Ichigo nodded. “I understand,” he said and jumped over the side.

Giorno sighed, looking at Bruno. “I still don’t know if this is such a good idea. We’ve got no idea who exactly is on that ship.”

Nodding, Bruno put his arm around Giorno’s shoulders. “I know, but this is about finding out what’s on that ship. Get in, get information, and get out. That’s your plan. Don’t be seen and don’t take any chances.” Bruno lowered his voice so only Giorno could hear him. “Keep an eye on Ichigo. We don’t know his capabilities.”

“Sure, you got it,” Giorno muttered and got down into the boat with the others.

They took off, rowing toward the King Crimson, with hope that they wouldn’t be noticed as anything important as they came up to the larger ship. Before long, they were moored against them, and were climbing up the rope for the lifeboats that hung down the side. Giorno was vaguely impressed at Ichigo’s athletic ability as he easily navigated going up. Starrk stayed with the boat while the others snuck aboard. He landed on the deck and crouched down with the others.

“Below decks is where they’ll have the slave pens,” Giorno whispered hoarsely. “We’ll go down, look around for ten minutes, then return up here to the boat. No more!”

“What if we don’t find them in ten minutes?” Ichigo asked, glaring at him.

“We’ll just have to,” Giorno murmured as he stepped forward with Ichigo on his heels. Nnoitra took off another direction, as did Mista and Leone.

They saw a couple crewmen, but they looked to just be running the ship. They had no weapons and were seeing to the daily tasks on the ship. They were easily avoided as they found a stairwell going down. They slowly worked their way down until they reached the bottom. Once there they took off toward the left to see if they could find anything like cells to keep their captures in. They came to a door.

Giorno put his ear to the door and didn’t hear anything on the other side. He put his fingers to his lips and nodded to Ichigo. Ichigo stood to the side of the door to wait for Giorno’s word on what to do. Giorno nodded to him as he turned the doorknob an eased the door open. He could hear soft breathing inside the room already. He grit his teeth and hoped this wasn’t all for naught as he pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped into the room. Ichigo followed him close behind.

Standing up with wide eyes, Giorno knew they’d found the right room. Inside this room were barred cells, two of them, and inside those cells were five people in each. Ichigo ran up to one of them as Giorno shut the door quietly behind him.

A girl in one of the cells stood up and came to the bars. “Ichigo!”

“Orihime! Chad, Keigo!” he hissed as he got to the cell.

“What are you doing here?” Keigo asked as he got up and came to the bars.

Giorno knew they were running out of time. “Hurry up, we need to get back to the Gold Experience and let them know they’ve got people on board!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ichigo muttered. “Look, we’re going to get you out. I’m on another ship, and we’re going to attack them to get you out now that we know you’re here.”

“Why can’t you just let us go now?” Orihime asked. Ichigo had got the attention of everyone in the cells now.

“We need all of our crew to do it this; we’ll be back to get you, I promise!” he whispered as he turned back to Giorno.

 _Our crew?_ Giorno arched a brow at Ichigo’s association with the ship. He shook his head and motioned him back to the door. They eased the door open again and slipped back out. Giorno thought that the others should be back at the lifeboat already. They headed up the stairs slowly, coming to the door to the deck. Ichigo watched behind them as Giorno looked out the small window in the door to see if anyone was around outside.

Not seeing anyone, Giorno opened the door carefully. He could see the side they had climbed up on, and knew it was just a short walk to get back to it. He didn’t see the woman when she grabbed him by the arm. He gasped and was pulled to the side of the door.

“Well, well, what do we have here…” she said, smiling wickedly.

Ichigo came to the doorway and was pushed from behind, falling flat to the floor. Giorno looked behind him to see a guy with a floppy mohawk standing there with a grin. Ichigo pushed himself up to his hands and knees. The guy put his foot in the middle of Ichigo’s back and pushed him back down.

“Heh, this one’s already branded. Maybe he knows what happened to the Clash.” He ground his foot down into Ichigo who gasped out in pain.

“Now, now, Bazzy, be nice because we can’t damage him, or they won’t be able to sell him,” the woman said. Giorno looked at her, an average height woman dressed in a white coat with a white hat on her head. “I’m Bambietta, loves. And you’re caught.”


End file.
